Washington, D.C. and four states are requiring sixth-grade girls to receive the three-shot Gardasil vaccine before entering school this year. Gardasil protects against the “four strains of the sexually transmitted Human Pappilomavirus (HPV)” most likely to cause cervical cancer and genital warts.

Mandating that girls receive the vaccine at age 11 or 12 (there is currently no vaccine for boys) strikes me as a not-bad idea for the following reasons:

(a) D.C. has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the nation
(b) D.C. has one of the most sexually active teen populations in the nation
(c) 80 percent of sexually active teens contract HPV
(d) condoms don’t protect against it
(e) it’s CDC and FDA-approved for women ages 9 to 26
(f) Gardasil has been criticized for marketing the vaccine to the women least at risk for cervical cancer—all the more reason for D.C. to mandate it for the girls most at risk.

And yet, media coverage of the vaccine in recent weeks has focused almost uniformly on the bogeyman du jour— The Vaccine—instead of that other scary thing—The Virus. Check out the following story ledes about Gardasil:

Read More “HPV Vaccine Gardasil Officially Scariest Thing Ever, Media Reports” »

Fight HIV in D.C. has just posted a new factsheet about development and testing of the “therapeutic HIV vaccine,” a treatment meant to help control the spread of a virus in someone who has already contracted HIV. As HIV in D.C.’s David Mariner explains, the proposed therapeutic HIV vaccine differs from a preventative vaccine in that it’s “designed to boost the body’s immune response to HIV in order to better control the infection.” Still, the vaccine wouldn’t cure HIV or totally replace antiretroviral drug. The vaccines are currently being tested; in order to find more information on participating in a trial, Mariner points you to the AIDSinfo Vaccine Web page.

Photo by Todd Huffman.